The CBI has brought Andhra Pradesh’s home minister under its scanner.
To step up the probe into illegal iron ore mining by the jailed mining baron Gali Janardhana Reddy, the CBI has brought Andhra Pradesh’s home minister Sabitha Reddy under its scanner.
A team of CBI officials questioned Sabitha Reddy for about two hours late on Friday. She was the mines minister from 2004 to 2009 during when YS Rajasekhara Reddy was the chief minister and is believed to have been instrumental in offering several clearances for various mines companies, including that of Gali Janardhana Reddy.
Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC) owned by Gali Janardhana Reddy was granted mining leases during YSR’s regime and several files pertaining to the leases were endorsed by Sabitha Reddy. Interestingly, the former mines minister’s questioning follows a detailed grilling of the then mines secretary Sri Lakshmi.
Sri Lakshmi and the then director of mines Rajagopal have been under the CBI scanner for sometime now and the duo was questioned by the CBI several times. Sri Lakshmi was called for yet another round of questioning by the officials on Friday morning and Sabitha’s questioning followed that. However, sources rule out any direct relation between the questioning of Sri Lakshmi and Sabitha Reddy.
One key aspect the CBI is looking at is the way the permissions for mining were accorded to Gali Janardhana Reddy’s company. According to sources, the CBI has found several interesting aspects in the way the files were cleared.
The sources said approvals for OMC were given by the government and the files were cleared by Sabitha Reddy’s office on the same day. “About six mining leases were cleared on a single day and that is unusual since mining lease is a complicated issue,” the source said.
The CBI has already questioned people at various levels starting from the sarpanch of the village where the mines are located to the minister now.
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